HST Referendum

[[JT]]

YOUR THOUGHTS?

[nature boy]

just remember that voting "no" actually means yes and voting "yes" actually means no lol.
those tricky bastards.

[geForce]

I think this subject is beat to death.... but, there are a few things to add.

- Christy Clarke spent millions of dollars on pro-HST ads when her party said that they wouldn't.
- They will decrease HST to 10% if the referendum goes in their favour.
- If the HST is defeated, we will have to pay back the $2.5 billion to the federal government that they gave us as a kick-back for switching to HST.

[joel]

[se7entse7en]

[jeSteR]

HST is going to cost me an extra $30,000 next year... timing couldn't have sucked worse for me. That being said, I'm still voting to keep it.

[se7entse7en]

Slightly off topic...
Two of the last three youtube videos I watched had proHST ads. *sigh*

[joel]

[nature boy]

i actually don't see what the big deal is about hst.
unless you spend your entire paycheque on food and baby goods then there isn't that much of a difference. sure, there's an extra 6% every time you eat out, but has anyone actually sat down and calculated how much more it costs you a year? i'm willing to bet that unless you're feeding an army, it isn't going to be that much (compared to how much we spend on everything else).

without the hst, however, our provincial debt would be just growing huge. i read somewhere that the difference with hst and without from now until i think it was 2016 will be a few billion dollars. that's crazy man.

for our province to get ahead, we all have to pitch in a little. but if it were up to us, we'd want to pitch in nothing but reap all the benefits.

[Duncan]

when's the vote? lol

[Wetundies]

[joel]

i think people just are sore when it comes to raising taxes in general... hst/income/etc...

it's like we raise taxes, crown corporations raise rates, and then we see more propaganda and not necessarily any tangible benefits to citizens..

in any financial situation, the first priority should about limiting where we spend money wastefully to get ahead of our provincial debt, not necessarily putting it on the backs of taxpayers...

[nature boy]

but it's our provincial debt, shouldn't we be paying for it? i can understand that people don't want their money going to things other than for themselves, but i don't see paying tax as money disappearing, but rather it's putting into something that we do get a return, whether we like to acknowledge it or not.

ever drive on a road? guess who paid for it? how about walking through a clean park? went to see a doctor for free? gone to the er for a headache? we get a lot of benefit from our tax dollars but we choose to ignore them.

maybe this is why people don't give to the church so much either. they don't want to give to something where they don't see an immediate benefit. but who pays the electric bill? the maintenance? even the pastor's salary? (this is just fresh in my mind because i found out today that our offering income doesn't cover my salary).

basically, my take on the hst is that it's a small tax that many of us probably won't ever notice but it goes a long way in terms of our province. having to bring it to another vote is a freaking joke and a waste of money. THAT is what pisses me off about my tax dollars, going to crap like this (and cleaning up the mess after riots).

[[JT]]

I think the mistake that the govt made is not educating the public about HST, but then again it isnt that simple of a concept for the average citizen.

[se7entse7en]

I don't know much about the HST, but doesn't the tax money go to the federal government, not the provincial government? It goes to pay off the Federal debt, not provincial. With the HST, isn't BC at the mercy of the federal government? Is that the future you want for BC? I see it as a short term fix to balance our budget, but in the end the feds will have us by the testicles.

At least when we're po'd with the bc government we can punish them by voting in another party. We can't do that federally.

I don't necessarily mind the idea of a consumption tax even if it means paying a bit more for certain items/services, I just don't like where the money is going.